letterpress

About Letterpress

Ready for your history lesson?

Once upon a time, in a world without iPhones and laptops, news and reading material was printed using the letterpress method – the ingenious process invented by Mr Gutenberg in the mid 15th Century.

The letterpress method involves offering a raised, inked surface, (or plate, as it’s called in the trade) up to a lovely sumptuous paper stock. Pressure is then applied, and when it’s whipped away, a gorgeous deep impression of the plate has been made into the paper, giving a lovely tactile, three-dimensional result.

When Mr Gutenberg kicked things off, old-fashioned type (as pictured) had to be individually set into a ‘lock-up’ to make up the print. Let me tell you, this type is tiny. And fiddly. Setting it all up wouldn’t have been a job for the impatient, so it’s a very good job things have developed since then.

As well as being an incredibly time-consuming task, you were also hugely restricted in what you could print – fonts, sizes and layouts were limited. We wouldn’t be able to print most of our designs if we used this method, but luckily, the process has evolved to allow us to be as creative as we wish. We are now able to combine the beautiful process of letterpress printing, with the modern wonders of technology. We create our designs in Illustrator, and then make a photopolymer plate, which then gets mounted on to a base, and away we go! Every step of the process happens in our studio, with Andrew and I carrying each task out personally.

Variations in print

We adore the wonderful, tactile nature of this method of printing. When so much of the world around us is played out digitally, it feels pretty special to be part of something crafted with time, care and attention. The tactile finish we produce is a perfect example of quality and craftsmanship, which is often missing from many modern printing methods. We also love how the manual nature of this craft makes every single item a tiny bit different to the last.

The letterpress process

If you like what you have read so far, but want to become a letterpress know-it all then read on. Here’s a little more detailed information about what happens when you approve your artwork;

1. Pre-press prep

You’ve double checked the artwork for errors and are good to go. Hurrah! Now we get to work on printing your film. Film you say, what’s that about? Well, in order to produce your plates, we need to create a negative image of your design, which will be exposed to a UV light. This process has to happen for each colour and item you order.

2. Plate making

The film is popped on top of a polymer plate, and is then exposed to a UV light. The plate is then washed in a lovely bristly bath. The areas that were black on the film get washed away from the plate, leaving the raised design behind. The plate is then placed in a drying chamber, and finally post-exposed to the UV light to harden. (This stage of the process is pretty much like a plate spa day; a dip in the pool, some exfoliation, and going home with a tan!)

3. Accuracy required

The plate gets mounted and aligned (with millimetre precision) onto a metal base which is then locked-up in a chase and cleaned, ready for the press.

4. Press Pampering

Now it’s Henrietta’s time for a bit of pampering, and her day is kicked off with some precision oiling to ensure she runs smoothly like, well, a well oiled machine!

5. Getting inky

Time to get dirty and mix the ink for your job, (using the world’s tiniest scales), before inking up the press. This isn’t something to be rushed – too much ink and the plate will be over inked and the colour too dark, not enough and it will be too light. The amount of ink on the press gets topped up and regularly checked throughout the print run. Rollers run over the platen to distribute the ink evenly.

6. Paper feeding and print checking

Now we need to get the paper feeding perfectly, which means adjusting the suction for the paper feed, and the air blast of the press. Once each sheet is separating nicely (no double feeding here), we are ready to run the first proof. This will be checked for colour, impression and any flaws in the plate. (Tiny specs of dust can mean spots or marks appear).

7. Print away

The inking level and impression need to be adjusted for each item we print, with a little packing added where necessary to even up colour and impression. Once we have nailed this, and we are happy with the test proofs, we are good to go ahead and print the complete run of that particular plate. The quality of the print and colour are checked throughout the print run. Once your order has been printed, it needs to be set aside for a day or two to cure.

8. Ink wash-off

Time to wash the ink off the press. This starts out with Andrew scraping any excess ink away, before setting the press running again. This time, instead of rollers doing the work, a wash-up blade is engaged while an environmentally friendly citrus cleaner is carefully sprayed onto the rollers. This is another lengthy process, which needs to be completed carefully, to ensure our press is always at its best.

9. To the guillotine…

Once the order is dry, we can finally get everything cut down to perfect size. Crop marks are used to ensure perfect alignment. This is another job that requires a whole lot of attention – one slip and the whole order needs to be reprinted! After this, your order is finally complete, and we then have the task of lovingly wrapping each element of your order to ensure it reaches you in perfect condition!